24 July 2008

Issues With Houston Police Department's Marshall's Office

Isiah Carey's Insite has two posts concerning the beef between HPD Assistant Chief Vicki King and city Marshall's office.

June 17 Post
HPD isn't saying they are going to lay off the officers in the Marshall's office. They say they are going to have them reassigned. Now, many veteran officers who land a good day shift with weekends and holidays off become creatures of habit. They are very resistant to change, especially if it means losing such a sweet work schedule. Their argument (to justify their existence) is about clearing the over 1 million HPD warrants that are active.

July 23 Post
In this post, someone sent Mr. Carey an anonymous email claiming racism.

This is how "clearing warrants" works. An officer comes into contact with somebody on the streets (i.e. traffic stop, person stop, call for service, etc.). The officer checks the person (either by ID card, driver's license, or date of birth) through the local, state, and national databases looking for warrants. If the person is wanted, the warrant shows up. Now, the officer cannot arrest and haul the person to jail at that point. The officer must get confirmation of the warrant. This consists of contacting the law enforcement agency that wants the person arrested and brought to their jail. The officer (or their dispatcher) contacts the other agency and informs them they have a person who their computer says has a warrant. A representative of the warrant's originating agency goes to their file cabinet looking for the actual paper warrant. If the warrant is there, then the representative tells the officer/dispatcher that their warrant is active and they want the person in their jail. The officer is informed the warrant is "confirmed" and then the person is placed under arrest and taken to jail.

Now, in the first post, Mr. Carey asks Chief King about the 35,000 warrants cleared. However, I can promise you that the HPD Marshall's office did not locate all of these people on their own. The majority of these fugitives were arrested on other charges, or stopped on the street and checked by street officers. Someone at the Marshall's office answers the phone, gets the person's information, and goes looking for the paper copy of the warrant. I can tell you that in 2007, someone answered the phone 35,000 times and looked for 35,000 paper copies of warrants.

Now, with HPD under the gun for their manpower shortage, and for their massive overtime spending, what sense does it make for about 70 police officers to be paid to do a job that a handful of civilian clerks can do? Do people want more officers on the street? Do people want more detectives handling their cases? This seems to me, more of a case of HPD wanting to shift resources and complacent officers resisting the change to keep their nice work schedule. I can certainly understand a veteran officer not wanting to start over with a lousy shift and lousy days off. However, it's ultimately about how to best utilize police officers to serve the citizens.

Posted by Jason @ 07/24/08 01:54 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (4)

19 July 2008

The blog is going on vacation....

The blog is going on vacation over the next week....

I have travel this week (a pleasure trip and a work trip), and Anne Linehan has a number of things demanding her attention over the same time period, so it's unlikely we're going to have much time for posting.

So we're going to turn it over to ya'll for a while.... Please feel free to use this thread to discuss any Houston-area news that pops up over the next week. We just ask that you abide by the usual rules of the forum, and treat your fellow readers and commenters with the usual courtesy. Enjoy!

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/19/08 12:20 AM | Announcements | Technorati | Comments (19)

17 July 2008

Harris County candidate campaign-finance reports finally online

Over at Hair Balls, Richard Connelly notes that Harris County has finally put candidate campaign-finance reports online.

Unfortunately, the format is PDF, and not an online searchable database, but it's a start, we suppose.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/17/08 10:40 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (0)

16 July 2008

Houston blog talk linkpost: 07/16/08

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/08 10:34 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Harvard economist lauds Houston's "urban growth machine"

Harvard economist Edward Glaeser has a fascinating op-ed in the New York Sun today (apparently a shortened version of a forthcoming City Journal article) that compares earnings and cost of living in New York and Houston and concludes that Houston has some significant strengths:

Houston's success shows that a relatively deregulated free-market city, with a powerful urban growth machine, can do a much better job of taking care of middle-income Americans than the more "progressive" big governments of the Northeast and the West Coast.

The right response to Houston's growth is not to stymie it through regulation that would make the city less affordable. It's for other areas, New York included, to cut construction costs and start beating the Sunbelt at its own game.

Isn't it interesting how so many Houston elites are in hot pursuit of the "world classness" of other cities, at precisely the time that elites in some of those cities are beginning to give Houston its due?

BLOGVERSATION: Chron Houston Politics, Lone Star Times.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/16/08 10:22 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

15 July 2008

Houston blog talk linkpost: 07/15/08

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/15/08 11:31 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

KHOU: City deploys anti-graffiti cam

KHOU-11's Rucks Russell reports that deployment of the city's fancy new anti-graffiti cams is going slowly:

“It's a digital camera set inside a reinforced metal housing,” Eixman described of the new tool against those who create graffiti. The camera is dedicated to the sole purpose of tracking down the taggers by actually snapping photos of their faces and other ways to identify the suspects.

“Getting their pictures of what they do (is) like getting caught red0handed in the cookie jar,” said Eixman.

It is similar to an effort launched back in 2001 when a private company teamed with the Mayor's Anti-Gang Task force to demonstrate the technology. At the time, city leaders promised a greater commitment to cracking down on taggers.

Years later, though, instead of a series of cameras, there is only one.

While grateful for what he's gotten, “Oh, I'd love a lot more cameras,” said Eixman.

KHOU didn't get a comment from the Mayor's Office, but Councilmember and Sheriff candidate Adrian Garcia had this to say on the lack of follow-through:

“We want to do more, the taxpayers give us but so much money to worth [sic] with and that's what we have to be disciplined by,” said councilman Adrian Garcia.

That same discipline contributed to the lack of investment seven years ago, said Garcia. The cameras cost about $2,500 each, which means that tagging the taggers will likely continue to be a tall order in Houston.

It's not clear that these cameras are a great investment in fighting graffiti, so perhaps it's just as well that deployment is actually going slowly and results can be evaluated before adding more cams.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/15/08 10:59 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (11)

Chron (syndicated) columnist criticizes Washington sports boondoggle

Here is an excerpt from a bizarre column by Chronicle "Couch Slouch" columnist Norman Chad:

To: My hometown of Washington

From: A fallen son who will not return

Re: Your new baseball stadium

So, how's that spanking-new, paid-for-by-the-people Nationals Park working out? The Nats are 12th out of 16 National League teams in home attendance in the first year of the fresh-faced, gleaming facility — your tax dollars hard at work!

Washington: First in War, First in Peace and First in Half-Filled State-of-the-Art Ballparks Funded Entirely From Public Coffers That Are Now Nearly Empty.

I first saw the retro ball yard on opening day, courtesy of ESPN. It looked like a picture postcard. Outside, the city looks like a living nightmare.

(Sure, some readers might ask: Why are you moaning about the Nationals' new park one week after moaning about the new Yankee Stadium? Because I'm tired of sports franchises feeding off the public dime and I'm tired of the public's compliance in this process. I'm tired of rich men pillaging the poor and then asking them to clean up afterward. If Nero were alive today, he'd be fiddling in a luxury suite at the Colosseum while Rome burned.)

Actually, some readers -- including this one -- might ask, why so much interest in what other cities are doing in terms of sports boondoggles, and not Houston? Isn't our city in the middle of trying to build another one, and didn't Jeff Cohen once say the name of the newspaper is the HoustonChronicle?

And while we're asking questions -- what is the purpose of a "couch slouch" column in the sports section anyway?

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/15/08 10:44 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

14 July 2008

Houston blog talk linkpost: 07/14/08

In the never-ending quest to get our link posts just right, we're going to try it as a semi-regular aggregated listing of interesting posts from local blogs, to try to cut down on the RSS traffic generated by the individual link posts (some people have found that distracting, and it's a fair point).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/14/08 11:16 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Mayor asks EPA for improved area emissions measurements

Last week, various media outlets reported that Mayor White asked the EPA to reconsider its methods of calculating emissions from area industry. Here is an excerpt from the Chronicle account:

Mayor Bill White on Thursday challenged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's methods for calculating emissions from large refineries and chemical plants, saying that the approach significantly underreports the amount of pollution in Houston's skies.

White said studies show that actual emissions can be 100 times greater than EPA estimates, which are based on industry-provided data.

To produce more reliable information, the federal agency should require refineries and chemical plants to verify the accuracy of their emissions with emerging laser technology and fence-line monitors, among other steps, White said.

"Up until now, the EPA has relied on rough estimates, and the companies themselves have done the estimates," he said. "It's a simple request, but it's a very bold request. It's a request that will allow the people of Houston to know what's in their air."

The mayor said federal, state and local governments must have reliable data to make decisions regarding public health.

If what the mayor claims about the current EPA methodology is true (and we have no reason to believe it is not), then his proposal for more accurate collection of emissions data by independent parties seems eminently sensible (much more so than previous threats to engage in dubious legal wrangling over emissions). Indeed, we would suggest that gathering accurate data to measure performance is important in many different areas of public policy.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/14/08 09:32 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

13 July 2008

Chron D.C. bureau on top of Culberson twitter crusade (a few days late)

The New York Times ran a story today on the Congressional dustup over twitter, led in part by social media advocate (geek?) Rep. John Culberson.

That seems to have attracted the attention (finally) of the Chron's vaunted D.C. bureau, which offers a post with blockquotes from the Times story, and promises:

Let us know what you think. We'll keep you posted on the latest developments.

Really?

Since we posted about the matter five days before the big New York newspaper finally called the D.C. bureau's attention to the social-media activities of a Houston Congressman (Rep. Culberson had already been discussing the matter on twitter before that), we're thinking that the Chron D.C. bureau may not be the best way to keep up with "the latest developments." Perhaps a better choice would be the Congressman's twitter page, or local blogs?

UPDATE (07-14-08): Here is an interview with Rep. Culberson on this topic by Tim O'Brien.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/13/08 11:02 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (6)

Bradford comes out of hiding, spreads the blame for the crime lab mess

Alan Bernstein's profile of Democratic Harris County District Attorney candidate Clarence Bradford (which has already generated discussion here and elsewhere) heads into almost virgin territory for this campaign, as Bernstein actually managed to entice Bradford out of hiding to talk about various scandals during his time as HPD Chief.

Given the (low) quality of the answers, one can certainly understand why Bradford's handlers prefer him hiding from the press.

Here are some sidebar comments on Bradford's notion of responsibility:

"Anytime something goes wrong in the police department the chief is responsible. If the toilet doesn't flush in the police building, the chief has to take responsibility for that. That's part of the job"

"9/11 happened when President Bush was president. I don't blame the president for 9/11 happening because he was president at the time, OK? Things happen"

Things happen, yes. But as the Bromwich reports made clear, life-and-death things happened with the HPD crime lab during Bradford's watch, and Bradford was part of the problem.

Bradford, though, admits that he hasn't read those reports -- reports for which area government spent millions so we could try finally to fix the problems of the crime lab -- and that he doesn't plan to:

The former chief, however, said he had no intention of reading all of the reports on the two-year, $5.3 million investigation of the crime lab by a team led by Michael Bromwich, a former U.S. Justice Department inspector.

Asked why, Bradford replied: "Because I was part of the process (of the investigation). I am familiar with the reports; I have read the summary of all of them."

The reports repeatedly fault HPD's "chain of command" for lax oversight. Bradford said he disagrees with some of the conclusions.

Any candidate for Harris County District Attorney who has pledged NOT to read more than a summary of the Bromwich reports on the crime lab should be disqualified from pursuing the office. That's just an astounding, damning, admission.

Moving on from the responsibility theme, Bradford does have in mind who's really to blame for mismanagement of the crime lab:

"What I should have done — which I didn't see until this all blew up — I should have at least annually gotten independent audits of the crime lab, as opposed to relying on, like the two previous chiefs had done, this particular supervisor ... stating the crime lab met all the federal standards," he said. "So, yes, that's when I dropped the ball. I relied too heavily on the people with the science and biology degrees."

The experts let Clarence the Delegator down! Oh, and so did the other member of Houston's Dynamic Duo at the time:

Bradford, 52, said he was unable to increase lab staffing because of tight budgets dictated by Lanier's successor, Lee Brown — whose law enforcement consulting company, Brown Group International, has employed him since his retirement.

So, this man who won't be capable of trying major cases in court because of lack of experience and has said -- in this profile even -- that as District Attorney, he will be a major public voice and manager rather than a prosecutor -- wasn't able to persuade Lee Brown, Council, or the public that perhaps funding to deal with some known issues at the crime lab would be a good idea? That seems like a guy who isn't likely to be a persuasive public-facing District Attorney either.

But he wants voters to know he's learned from the ordeal:

Bradford, with degrees in criminal justice, public administration and law as well as training by the FBI National Academy and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, considers the lab failures a plus for him now: "I am able to learn from those and move forward. ... That makes me more prepared to go in and deal with organizational issues such as these."

Defendants whose evidence was mangled as the leaders ultimately responsible for the Crime Lab fiddled, so to speak, will surely be pleased to know there's a silver lining to the mess.

Good for Bernstein for finally getting Bradford to answer some of these important questions. We suspect, given some of these disastrous answers, that we may not see Bradford answering many more press inquiries in the near future.

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/13/08 10:48 PM | Houston Politics | Technorati | Comments (1)

Klein ISD faces lawsuit over bond election

The Klein ISD bond election is being challenged in court, and the Chron's Kim Jackson has details:

Klein school district resident Fred Blanton has filed a lawsuit contesting the results of the school district’s May 10 school bond election because of several incidents that occurred at various voting locations on Election Day.

He said the incidents violated the Texas Election Code.

In his suit, filed in state district court June 19, Blanton said those “mistakes and possible fraud” could have affected the outcome of the election. The election results should be declared void, Blanton said, and a new bond election called Nov. 4.

Blanton’s lawsuit focuses on an incident at the Brill Elementary School polling site. He said the election judge, assistant judge and election clerk assigned to that location, Precinct 109, left the polling location at 7:45 p.m. on May 10 without one of the “Judge’s Boot Controllers,” a device that records votes cast on the eSlate voting machines used in the election. After realizing that the controller was missing after arriving at the district’s central tallying location, the lawsuit states, one of the election judges returned to Brill Elementary with a police escort to retrieve the device.

By that point, Blanton said, the device had been left unattended and unsecured for “several hours.” The final vote count at the Brill location was 622 for the bond referendum and 248 against. He said no other voting location demonstrated such a large margin of victory.

The violations Blanton’s lawsuit alleges at the remaining 13 voting locations related to gaps and mistakes in the records that are required to be kept by those assigned to oversee each site.

Klein voters approved the $646.9 million bond referendum in a close election, with 4,732 voting for the measure and 4,420 against, according to information posted on the Klein ISD Web site.

Fred Blanton's lawsuit addresses problems at voting locations that included numbers of votes not matching signatures, and chain of custody issues. Klein ISD's response was:

“In response to the extent that the matters he describes are true, nothing individually or collectively rises as the basis for overturning the election,” Feldman said.

Regardless of how the lawsuit turns out, all has not been smoothed over in the district. Voters outside of Klein High are not happy with the district's leadership and direction, something officials might want to keep in mind when board members come up for reelection.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/13/08 05:08 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (2)

Chronicle's Alan Bernstein (didn't miss) History (Corrected)

Late Precinct 7 Constable A.B. Chambers with Constable May Walker in 2005

Today Alan Bernstein penned this nice little puff piece about Democratic DA Candidate Clarence Bradford. Click here to read the story for yourself. However, here's one small problem with his story:

The county never has elected an African-American to a law enforcement job.

I guess Mr. Bernstein forgot that in 1973, Harris County voters elected A. B. Chambers as Constable of Precinct 7. Constable Chambers is the first black, Constable in Harris County.

In 2001, voters elected Perry Wooten as Precinct 7 Constable. However, he wound up on trial and a convicted felon (remember "racism, sexism, all kind of isms!").

In 2004, voters elected May Walker, the first black, female Constable in Harris County.

So Mr. Bernstein, just why would you overlook this tiny fact?

KEVIN WHITED ADDS: In a forum comment and in an email, Mr. Bernstein points out that countywide, no African-American has been elected to a law-enforcement job, the point he was trying to make with the line in question. We regret the misunderstanding.

Regardless, I think the information about African-American law enforcement pioneers in Harris County adds value to the conversation, even though their election took place in parts of the county rather than countywide.

Posted by Jason @ 07/13/08 11:11 AM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (10)

12 July 2008

Skateboarders and loft residents not living in perfect harmony

According to the Chron's Michelle Casady, all is not well in the lofts near the city's new skatepark:

Even on a rainy Wednesday afternoon, kids and parents were lined up and waiting for the Lee and Joe Jamail Skatepark to reopen. Across the street, through a parking lot and behind a gate, residents of the Sabine Street Lofts were hoping the weather would grant them a reprieve.

Since the 30,000-square-foot park alongside Buffalo Bayou opened June 1, an average of 320 people have skated its ramps and concrete bowls every day.

Lofts residents say the skaters also have tagged city property, left behind soda cans and snack-food trash and even trespassed onto loft property to skate in the parking garage.

Topping their complaints is illegal parking on the Sabine Street bridge, which they say constricts the route they use into and out of the complex.

"I just think when they build something as large as that, that has such a huge impact on the community, there should be a public hearing process, but there wasn't one," said Dee Carpenter, who has lived in the lofts for four years. "No one ever checked to see if parking was going to be an issue, and it has been."

[snip]

Carpenter said some residents have discussed moving.

"There's some people here who are like, 'Hey, my lease is up in June, July, August. We'll see where we are then, but we might move,' " she said.

This seems to conflict with a local advocacy group's promise of an idyllic world if only the city would build a skatepark (via Swamplot):

If you want to get the kids off the streets, get them to quit tearing up your ledges and your rails, and put them some place where they can actually have some fun and stay out of trouble, a place where families can come hang out — there’s a real need for it in a city this big.

Just hanging out, and having fun. The loft residents are probably being unreasonable.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/08 08:38 PM | Houston Miscellany | Technorati | Comments (8)

Editorial LiveJournalists tackle...office distractions

It would seem MeMo was in charge of today's inexplicable editorial offering:

Feeling distracted? Plagued by constant interruptions? Can't concentrate on the job? Drowning in a flood of data and stimulae?

Now it can be known: You're not alone. According to the New York-based consulting firm Basex, the typical American office worker spends no more than three minutes on task before being interrupted. Many U.S. workers — those in the news media, for instance — would give much to have three uninterrupted minutes.

The distractions stem from e-mails, calls, visitors, colleagues dropping by to chat, the temptation to visit YouTube or another amusing Web site. Added to those are environmental noise from construction, traffic, air handlers, and seemingly omnipresent radios and televisions.

Basex reports that such distractions waste 28 percent of a worker's shift, costing businesses $650 billion a year.

So Chron employees waste 28 percent of their work time? This explains many things at 801 Texas Avenue.

Posted by Anne Linehan @ 07/12/08 08:51 AM | Houston Chronicle | Technorati | Comments (7)

10 July 2008

HouStoned is not long for this world (HouStoned)

The Houston Press blog HouStoned will soon be getting a name change and a bigger dose of Rich Connelly (HouStoned).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/08 10:22 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

Houston speed traps (Bayou City Madman)

I.J. Reilly describes "what happens when a 'business-minded' mayor remodels a major metropolitan police force after the stellar examples of Roscoe P. Coltrane and Boss Hogg" (Bayou City Madman).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/08 10:12 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

METRO: Why waste the brain cells?

This week's "Move It!" column in the Chronicle concluded with more useless filler than usual:

It's hard to get answers to some perfectly reasonable questions.

"I was wondering," writes Joel Santos Shepherd, "if Metro is denied federal funding to build a few of their next light rail lines, will they still continue with construction of the East End line, since they had planned to pay for that one out-of-pocket anyway?"

That a reasonable inference, but in such dire straits, Metro may re-evaluate its overall plan, compare the five planned lines against each other for costs and benefits, and rank them by priority. We asked, of course.

"Why speculate on something that likely won't happen? Waste of brain cells," Metro spokeswoman Raequel Roberts said. "Plus, the variations on the question are endless."

It's always nice when public representatives blow off legitimate questions from the public about the organization they represent.

One Chron.com commenter did have a nice response, though:

Perfect.

"Why waste the brain cells", needs to be adopted as Metro's Mission Statement. It is the attitude. Might as well be the logo. HAHAHA

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/08 10:01 PM | Houston Transit | Technorati | Comments (5)

ULI CHF panel on Houston's future (+Metro North LRT) (Houston Strategies)

Tory Gattis discusses the estimated cost of METRO's North light rail line ($116 million per mile... and $34K of capital investment per daily boarder ... $68K per daily round trip passenger"), and asks readers, "Does this sounds reasonable?" (Houston Strategies).

Posted by Kevin Whited @ 07/10/08 09:51 PM | Houston Blog Talk | Technorati |

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Issues With Houston Police Department's Marshall's Office

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Houston blog talk linkpost: 07/16/08

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HouStoned is not long for this world (HouStoned)

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